Manipulation
by PPP SSC
Summary: After a heart-to-heart with Soren, Gatrie realizes that Shinon has been using his below average mind to his advantage. But how will this epiphany affect Shinon's life? Rated T for mild language and some sexual themes. Contains support spoilers.


Manipulation

_Gatrie was walking through the flower garden when a lovely auburn-haired woman approached him. She said to him, "You like flowers, don't you?"_

_"Yeah," he said, blushing, his eyes looking at his feet._

_"I like flowers too… especially pretty ones like these, but, oh… I have fallen ill…"_

_"Ill!?" asked Gatrie, "Well how can I help you?" _

_"I need a large sum of money to pay for my medicine, but…"_

_"I have 11,038 gold pieces with me."_

_"Well, that is exactly the amount I need to buy the medicine… thank you so much, but I think, we should get married…"_

_"Get married?" he said, "Of course I will because you are pretty."_

_As it turned out, she was a con-artist and took Gatrie for all he had._

In retrospect, Gatrie realized, during the time that he thought he had a girlfriend; Shinon hadn't been supportive at all. In fact, he seemed to be waiting for her to dump him. The way he had dismissed Gatrie's lost love, and thought going out to dinner would rectify it. Gatrie didn't know why Shinon acted that way. Even though everyone considered him brazen and irritable during normal times, and nearly intolerable while drunk, Gatrie noticed him acting much meaner during times when he had thought he found a girlfriend.

Gatrie, though he only had an IQ of 94, was smart enough to tell something was up with Shinon—but couldn't tell what it was. He decided to take advice from Soren, who was locked up in his room, and wouldn't let anyone in if they didn't know the password.

"Umm… peanut butter pancakes?" Gatrie guessed.

"No," Soren replied.

"Shinon is being a…"

"No."

"Let me in, please."

"No."

Ike showed up by Soren's door. "Soren, can I come in, please?"

"Sure, Ike…" Soren said as he opened the door. Gatrie frowned.

"Why did you let him in but not me? I asked if I could come in, please, and you said no."

"You said, 'Let me in, please', but the password was, 'Soren, can I come in, please'."

"Oh, come on! That's not fair!"

"What do you need anyway, Gatrie?"

"I need… your help… about Shinon," Gatrie answered.

Soren's eyes widened at that moment. "Please come in," Soren said.

Soren's room was rather small, but as far as he was concerned, it was lovely. Gatrie sat down on the side of Soren's bed. "It's just that I've noticed that he gets upset if I find a girlfriend or something like that," Gatrie started, "It's so weird. It's like he doesn't understand that a good friend is supposed to be supportive of his friends' love life, especially when something good happens."

"Gatrie," Soren began, "Do you recall last summer, when I was being incredibly stubborn about helping Princess Elincia?"

"Yeah, but what does that have to do with me and Shinon?"

"Well… I was jealous, and I think that's his problem too."

"He's jealous of me… yes, that does seem…"

"No, Gatrie," Soren said, "Jealous of your girlfriend."

"Jealous of my girlfriend? Now why would Shinon be jealous of MY girlfriend?"

Soren looked at Gatrie in silence. "Now Gatrie, surely, you must have noticed how Ike and I behave around each other…"

"Yes, I do…" Gatrie said, "It's almost as if you guys are in love or something."

"We ARE in love, Gatrie…" Soren said.

"But, you're both boys."

"That kind of love does exist, Gatrie, but sometimes it isn't requited."

"Not requited… what does that mean?" Gatrie was confused.

"Basically, it means that one of the people is in love with the other, but the latter won't return those feelings."

"So… what does that have to do with Shinon?" Gatrie, still not making the connection of Soren's speech, began to drive the mage so crazy that he began to tear his hair out of his head.

"For Ashera's sake, you stupid knight, Shinon is in love with you!" he yelled tactlessly, losing all patience.

"In love with me… but he never gave any hints of…" Gatrie began, but was rudely interrupted by Ike.

"So, you're telling him that Shinon never gave any hints of being in love with you? Then how come when I see you two together he always seems to be asking you out to dinner? Haven't you done that to woo girls before, Gatrie?"

"Well, I suppose I have. But if Shinon is really in love with me, then I guess he can never get his way, because I'm not attracted to guys."

"Well… yes… but you see the thing is, this whole time he's been manipulating you into being his boyfriend. Disguising all his wooing tricks as simple friendly gestures, and acting mean all the time so you couldn't tell when he was angry or jealous, and even distracting you from girlfriends by subtle insults… don't you know what this all means?"

"No, Soren, I can't say I do," Gatrie said.

"It means that YOU have been TRICKED into being Shinon's boyfriend, even though you could never requite his love," Soren replied angrily. Suddenly something snapped in Gatrie's head.

His eyes widened with incredulousness, his lower lip drooped with a shock of disbelief, his head hung down in the realization his closest friend had been using him. Gatrie left the room abruptly, a dejected frown suddenly appearing on his face—could this end a friendship, he wondered.

It was true that Gatrie had never noticed Shinon trying to make moves on him, even though it was pretty clear to everyone else around them what was going on. And indeed, Shinon's conniving skills—which were pretty much required for him to be a sniper; one who must hide and attack when the enemy least expects it—would have given anyone a hard time, but Gatrie contemplated, how could he ever have been that stupid? He walked toward his best friend of nine years and decided to say what he needed to say, though emotions held him back somewhat. He may not have felt any mutual attraction to Shinon, but he still felt emotions which were a bit like love for him. He got up his courage and confronted his friend.

"Shinon," he said. His face still looked a bit dismal from earlier when he found out that Shinon was tricking him.

"What is it, Gatrie?" the sniper asked, a subtle leer growing slowly yet surely on his face.

"It's about our relationship… can you explain to me why you're always asking me on dates? Or why you're always upset when I get a girlfriend? Or why you never bring up cute girls unless I already brought them up?" Gatrie began spurting out random questions.

"Slow down, Gatrie. I can't answer all of your questions at once. You have to slow down… at least give me time to figure out what you're trying to say," Shinon said, although by now, he was pretty much done figuring out what Gatrie was trying to say, but the lustful lover in him wished desperately for him to be wrong.

"I'm saying, I don't think we can stay friends… not if you're going to think of me as a sex object…" Gatrie said frankly, some small tears beginning to fill his eyes, his voice cracking.

"Gatrie…" Shinon began, a semblance of mock surprise appearing between his exposed forehead and pointed chin. "I thought my manipulation was foolproof…" he muttered, his pain welling up in his chest.

"Yes, foolproof it was, and I was the fool. But now I know and you and I can't see each other anymore." Gatrie was full-on crying now. Though he firmly believed a separation between him and Shinon would be the most beneficial to both parties, he still felt it hard to say goodbye.

"You know, you were never just a sex object to me… I really did love you… I only tricked you because I knew something like this would happen if I didn't…" Shinon said starting out sad and ending up angry.

Gatrie turned his head as he left sullenly, seeing a sight he'd never imagined—Shinon crying in sadness and anger. Pain, perhaps had caused this teary-eyed state, but mostly Gatrie only saw it when Shinon decided to drink one too many hard tequila shots and ended up hurling his guts out in the hangover. To see really mutual tears was so overwhelming that Gatrie ran at speeds that he felt were too fast for him.

"He wasn't just a sex object… why would he think that? He was my friend, my confidante, my shield, my scapegoat, and my security blanket… he meant about as much to me as Ike does to Soren… damn Soren; he gets the man he wants—though I may add he doesn't have very good taste—but do I? NO! Damn Ike too. He's got Soren, but he doesn't like me… although, part of that might be the fact that I don't like him…" Shinon cried to himself, his already rosy complexion brightening in anger and tears.

Nobody seemed to notice at first, but after this had been going on for several weeks, Soren began to sympathize with him. "You know, Ike… one time I was contemplating losing someone I loved very much—you, in fact—and it felt awful, but I've never actually been dumped before… I can't even imagine how bad Shinon must feel," he said, his eyes beginning to fill with tears in empathy.

"Soren, it's Shinon. I know you're usually the one who does the cynical thinking and I'm the one who thinks the emotions of the other person wins, but this time, are you really going to sympathize with him?" Ike asked incredulously.

"This time," Soren said, "Shinon lost his best friend because of a deep mutual feeling of love for him! How do you think I'd feel if I lost you?"

"Well, probably like a pile of crap…" Ike said. "So are you going to help him?"

"Yes…" Soren said, "Hey Shinon!"

"What do you want?" he asked with his eyes full of tears, though the sneer of rebellion which he had so long possessed was beginning to return to his face.

"I just want to be your friend…" Soren said with as much extroversion as his asocial person could muster.

"Yeah right… you don't want to be friends with anyone that isn't named Ike, doesn't have a father named Greil, and doesn't have a younger sister named Mist. You're just here to torture me now that Gatrie's left me vulnerable…" Shinon said, his tears stopping suddenly.

Vulnerable had been a very fitting word choice. "Shinon, I'm not nearly as shameless as you; I wouldn't take advantage of someone's pain to make his life miserable, even if it is you."

"Quit lying; it doesn't suit you," Shinon snarled in a much more expected way than he had been acting before.

"Fine, don't believe me…" Soren said indignantly, crossing his arms, "But I've… sort of had experience with this before… I won't go into details because I still don't fully trust you."

"You've been dumped by your closest friend before? Yeah right; the only person you ever acted nice to, is still in a relationship with you."

"Well, Ike never ACTUALLY dumped me, but my vivid contemplations of what would happen if he DID seemed eerily similar to how you're acting now that 'the incident' happened?"

"Alright, Soren… at first it was funny but now it's just plain wrong. Did I just hear you use a euphemism? For no other purpose than to preserve my feelings? How high a fever are you running?" Shinon asked, a glint of a smile actually appearing on his face.

"Well, I jested you enough to make you smile… that's good, and now Boyd owes me 100 gold."

"Why?" Shinon asked, the feelings of gut pain returning to him.

"Oh, Boyd bet that I couldn't cheer anyone up even if I tried really hard," Soren said, "But don't worry—he didn't bet that I couldn't cheer YOU up specifically. I was here for the sole purpose that I couldn't stand you being so sad."

"Soren… you'd really be willing to replace Gatrie?" Shinon asked, beginning to grin. Soren had a look of utter repulse on his face.

"That depends… are you going to try to hit on me?" he asked.

"I'll just wait and see," Shinon said as he wrapped his hand firmly around Soren's wrist, dragging him along, "Come on! Let's go!"

"Where are we going?" Soren asked, "And do you have to hold my wrist so tightly? You're cutting off my circulation."

"Aw… you're so anemic I'm surprised you can tell the difference," Shinon told to his surprisingly whining new 'friend'. "Here we are."

They had found the most romantic spot in Crimea to have dinner; the Starlight Chowhouse. "Why are we here?" Soren asked confused.

"We're here," Shinon began, "To sabotage Gatrie's date."

"Sabotage!? No way! I'm a cynic, not a cheater; I wouldn't lie to save my life."

"Would you lie to save Ike's?"

"Maybe…"

Over the hill and down in the plain, Gatrie was sitting down to dinner with his date. "You know, Ilyana, you do look skinny but honestly, you eat like a cute little piggy."

"Yeah… well, you look like you know what you're doing but honestly…"

"What are you trying to say to me?"

Back on the hill, Shinon glared at Soren. "Now, if you don't want Ike to get hit in the back with a killer bow when he least expects it, you will throw this rock at Gatrie's date!" he ordered.

Soren gulped in fear, and clenched his eyes together as he threw the rock, but it missed Ilyana and hit Gatrie.

"Ow!" Gatrie said, "What's this? A ROCK! Who threw a rock at me? Wait, who's that on the hill? Shinon! Shinon, you know I don't want you, so why don't you just give up! And quit throwing rocks! I'm lucky I didn't black out!" Gatrie was really too angry to be at all understanding, so Shinon turned to Soren.

"You are SO dead!" Shinon screamed. Soren knew that this was his cue to run. Shinon was in hot pursuit, and because of the natural frailty of Soren's body, it wasn't long before he had to stop. Shinon leaped on Soren wrapping his arms around his neck. Soren fought with all the strength he could muster, but it still left him helpless; if only he had realized that being friends with Shinon would require him to be equipped with spells at all times.

It was so lucky that Ike happened to walk by at just the right moment, unsheathing his sword, and holding it just inches away from Shinon's back. "Put him down," Ike said coldly and angrily, "Or I'll be forced to kill you." Shinon was smart enough to not let pride outwit common sense and immediately released Soren's neck from his grasp, dropping him harshly on the ground, his breath returning. Ike lifted him, and walked away with him, but not without passing Shinon a glare of indignity, disbelief, and anger.

"CRAP! I blew it again. Oh bloody hell!"

"Shinon, watch your language!" a familiar voice cried.

"Oh, it's just you again. Look, I don't really want to talk to you right now. I'm pretty angry and irritated and I could take out almost anything on the weakest person I could find—believe me, I almost killed Soren after forcing him into doing something for me that I never had any problem doing myself before."

"Oh, dear Goddess… please, just if there's something you need… remember, priests are good counselors." Rhys extended a hand to touch Shinon's shoulder but it was deflected by Shinon's much stronger one.

"Did I not make myself quite clear? I'm trying to warn you that if you get on my nerves a little I might try to kill you, and you don't even have an Ikey-Poo to back you up!"

"Ikey-Poo? What, so you suddenly decided you were in love with Ike? Well that is a surprise."

"I'm not in love with Ike… I'm just making fun of Soren."

"Oh, okay, well Ike might not readily back me up, but Titania sure would."

"Fine, I'll bite. You know how I always acted all flirty around Gatrie and he never noticed? Well, suddenly he did notice—and then he said we couldn't be friends anymore."

Rhys' copper eyes widened, for he could not believe a word of it. Not only did it seem infeasible for Gatrie to notice Shinon's sly tricks, but it was also highly implausible that he would ever leave Shinon. After all, the two of them were always there together. They even left the Greil Mercenaries together, initially.

"Oh Shinon," Rhys said sympathetically, "I know exactly how to cure your misery… with fresh biscuits!"

"Biscuits!? What the hell?" Shinon tried to protest, but his benign colleague was gently nudging him over to the fort kitchen.

"Fresh baked biscuits… my mother's recipe," Rhys said, with a soft grin, holding a sheet of biscuits.

"Mmm… You know, these are actually very good. Your mother is a very good cook."

The clergyman giggled quietly and blushed. "Yes… well, the ginger is always a good addition…"

"GINGER!? I'm allergic to ginger, you brain-dead missionary!"

"I-I'm sorry. I-I didn't… know…"

"I'll probably break out in hives and it's all

your fault!!"

"What a troubled man he is."

It was ten weeks before Shinon spoke to Gatrie again. Gatrie stood alone in the rain. Shinon saw Gatrie standing there, and asked, "Gatrie… what's wrong?" Gatrie humphed and turned the other cheek. Shinon's face was fraught with concern, and his thin eyes were gleaming with potential tears.

Gatrie looked down at his feet. He shook his head, sighed, and said "I don't need you. Nobody needs you. You're always in the way."

Shinon asked "Wha-what?" and began to cry.

"You're only there to slow me down. You and your sass force me to be your bodyguard. I'm ashamed to call you my friend."

Shinon swallowed his tears and ran away quickly from the fort.

The next day, Ike was frantic. "I count and recount and recount some more and no matter how many times I try I'm coming up with ten! Emergency role call… I'm here. Are you here Titania?"

"I am, commander, and before you ask, Soren is present and accounted for, as is Mist."

"Thank the goddess. Uh… Oscar, Boyd, Rolf, are you all here?"

"We are, Ike."

Gatrie looked guilty and hid behind the table. "Rhys, Mia, are you two here?"

"Yes, and from the looks of it, Gatrie is present too."

"So the one missing is… Shinon."

Boyd was irate. "That pesky weasel left Ike again! If I ever get my hands on him…" Oscar held his sibling back. Boyd punched and kicked and screamed, "Let me go, Oscar!"

"Shinon's gone? Was he kidnapped?" Rolf shrieked.

"Why do you care what happens to that jackass, anyway?"

"Boyd…" Oscar continued trying to calm his brother.

"Oh… Ike! It's all my fault!" Gatrie wailed.

"How exactly is it your fault?" Ike asked.

"Oh, I told him off. And now he's GONE!" Gatrie began to cry louder.

"Gatrie," Ike said softly, "Go find Shinon."

"Huh? B-but, I'm as dim as twilight."

Soren said quickly, "Even twilight is bright enough to see that Ike's handsome. And even you're bright enough to find Shinon… provided you bring somebody to help you who perhaps knows a little more about Shinon than you do. Someone like… Rolf."

When Gatrie and Rolf finally reached Shinon, he had already chugged down twelve bottles of hard tequila. He was as drunk as he was heartbroken. The blond stared down at his old friend, sitting upon a rock, granite, and was dismayed at his disarray. "Shinon…" he started.

"Hmm?" asked Shinon with a slurred and cracking voice.

"I'm sorry." Gatrie felt like he was about to cry. "I'll take you back."

"Huh? But I thought…" Shinon complained, his eyes bloodshot, and stood up next to Gatrie, who pulled him into an embrace. Rolf smiled.

"Shinon, I was too hard on you," Gatrie said, as he released his arms.

Shinon looked down at the ground and looked like he was going to cry. "Is Uncle Shinon okay?" asked Rolf.

"No." answered Gatrie, "But he'll be fine in a few minutes; now look away." He took the child to his side and covered his eyes with his hands, as Shinon cleared away the pollutants in his stomach.

One week later everything was back to normal. All but one thing… Shinon knew not to mess with Gatrie's mind anymore. _Damn_, he thought, _how the hell did he get so jaded? _ He thought this with a smile on his face as his eyes lingered on Gatrie's hair. "This is the pits, isn't it?" he said quietly to himself.

Gatrie turned his head around and asked, "Did you say something?"

Shinon flustered and said quickly, "Uh… no, I didn't say anything… now if you'll excuse me, it's Wednesday and Ike gets all horny on Wednesdays so…"

"Enjoy your show…" Gatrie laughed. "Before Soren kicks you out again. I wonder what he's going to throw at you this week."

"You're a jackass," Shinon said, laughing, while pretending to be indignant.

"Yes," Gatrie said under his breath, "But I'm your jackass."


End file.
